The Saga of Ryzom - Ryzom Ring At E3 - First Look

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By Sassee

Ryzom Ring, The Saga of Ryzom's first ever expansion, has a tentative release goal for late 2005. Ryzom Ring will be very different from what gamers have ever seen before in an expansion pack for an MMO. We had the chance at E3 2005 in Los Angeles to sit down with David Cohen Corval, CEO of Nevrax, to discuss the future of Ryzom and what this new expansion will bring to the gaming genre.

Ryzom Ring is a set of tools which players can actually utilize to allow for player created content. Players will actually have the opportunity to imagine, create and share new "maps" in the game, which will in turn become new land in the ever-evolving planet Atys. If you are thinking that this sounds like players will actually be taking part in developing content alongside the game developers, you are correct. This player-created content will be such that you can open up to all players in the world, or keep it more private, such as only allowing friends or guildmates to enter your created land. The land can be for anything, it can be for fun "fluff" like a decorated place for guild gatherings, or a full on adventure zone, packed with creatures and encounters. Players will have the ability to develop the content in real time and be able to control every aspect of a scenario, such as NPC spawning or creature manipulation.

The access for players to generate their own content is essentially what the first phase of Ryzom Ring will be about. The map templates will be given to the players and will allow for them to populate them with creatures, NPCs, flora, fauna, safe zones, challenges and landmarks that already exist in the game. Later phases of innovation will allow the players even more freedom in their creating, such as modifying their land and tieing it into the storyline that's already in place, possibly even implementing those lands into the focus of some Live Events. This Ryzom Ring concept will be brand new and it will be interesting to see how it all plays out.

David Cohen Corval also talked with us about the current state of the original Saga of Ryzom and some of the plans for the future. While it's no secret that the game has suffered a few hardships in recent months, the development team is still as dedicated as ever to the players and the community. They desire for the game experience to be everything the players wish it to be. Nevrax recently hired Jessica Mulligan (formerly of Turbine) as Executive Producer to help the game reach further potential. Some of the other aspects to the game that will undergo changes in the future include the User Interface, a more informative tutorial for new players, the addition of more planets in addition to Atys, and a method of giving the varying races in Ryzom even more individuality.

More additions to weapons, abilities, crafting recipes and creatures are also on the agenda at Nevrax to help make The Saga of Ryzom an even more enjoyable play experience for current and future players. The decication to the game and it's development definitely shined through during our meeting with David at E3 and we would like to thank him for sharing the plans for the expansion pack, as well as future plans for Ryzom, with us. Included are ten screenshots which show off the dynamic world on the planet Atys.